Flightseeing McKinley

I got to go on a flightseeing tour of Mt. McKinley today!!!!!!!!! It was such a clear sky, the perfect day for it. We left the little airstrip in Healy in a tiny propeller plane and flew over Denali Park to the mountain. So many fabulous mountains and amazing pictures! You can see the climbers’ camps at 14,000 and 17,000 feet – and they waved at the plane. The pilot waved the whole plane back at them by tilting it from side to side. We had to wear air masks above a certain altitude because it isn’t a pressurized cabin, and had to talk and listen with speakers and headsets. Mt. McKinley has tan and black rock under the snow – I asked why and it turns out the black rock was material from the bottom of the ocean that got pushed up when the mountain was formed. There have been fossils found and all! The peak of Mt. McKinley is actually two peaks. There is a giant bowl type area near the top, I think the pilot said it was called the stadium or football field or something. We flew right over the peak, which is actually getting higher each year as the mountain continues to grow.

Surprisingly, I didn’t get at all plane sick – I actually think small planes may be easier to ride in than jets. I was also worried because on normal planes I have to use Ear Planes (genius ear plugs that maintain the pressure in your ears) or I can’t hear properly for days. But that wasn’t a problem – we just zipped up and down like it was nothing.

In the afternoon I completed the first leg of my epic walk - the first 15 miles to Savage River. I’ll write more tomorrow.

Pictures: Inside the plane; Mountain Chain: McKinley and highest point in America; climbers camp

Seasonal Workers

A lot of the seasonal workers here are from places like Bulgaria and Macedonia - so much so that with the change of scenery it kind of feels like I moved to a different country entirely with a lot of American tourists. It seems there are job fairs in those countries that recruit future rocket scientists to come clean rooms and carry bags in Alaska. It’s an opportunity to make some money, improve their English, and having been to America looks good on their resumes. Whatever wrorks, I guess! It's nice having a mix of cultures.

Other than eastern European/eastern block workers, there are a lot of young Mormons. I’m not sure why that is exactly. After that there are people in their late teens and early twenties. Then there are also older people who enjoy the seasonal worker lifestyle.

Most people here seem to smoke and drink a lot (excepting Mormons). When not doing that, there is a lot of time spent talking about smoking and drinking. Or reviewing who is a drunk, who got drunk, or who isn't at work because they were drunk last night. For a change of pace people discuss who has gone to go smoke, when they are going to go smoke, or how smoking doesn’t seem to be affecting their health at all – so what’s the big deal.

Pictures: Scenery; Wildflowers; Ptarmigan

Fruit and Veg

There is a store here that specializes in produce. Fliers all around town advertise that you can go to the store and buy exotic things like cherries and melons and avocados. The other day I went to the store just to handle a few melons and on the way back as I was walking along the highway I turned and looked behind me and saw a giant moose galloping across the road. Because this is Alaska.

Pictures: Wildflowers

Sled Dogs!

I walked to see the sled dog show in the park today. It was interesting to see how excited the dogs were about the prospect of pulling the sled and how fast the sled was on the gravel – it really takes off at breakneck speed. The dogs are so powerful that when the handlers get them to hook them up to the sled they grab them by their neck and haul them up so only their two hind legs are on the ground – all four legs would be too much power to keep from being dragged around by the dog.

Before and after the demonstration you can visit the dogs. There were puppies – obviously adorable. There was also one dog that had the most beautiful long legs and proud body stance. It made me think of an animated dog in a movie which I can’t quite place – I got flashes of it heroically standing on top of a stony overlook with a city below. I couldn’t get enough of this dog.

One dog was playing a game where it would try to flip its upside down food bowl right side up on the gravel, this would take a while, and then it would flip it upside down again. These dogs were clearly smart. They are so smart that it is a dog in a certain position on the sled team’s responsibility to make turns with a delayed reaction after the turn order is given and the lead dogs respond to prevent the sled from tipping over. They learn to do that by experience – if the sled tips over it means you have to stop, and these dogs want to go!

Pictures: Horseshoe Lake; Wildflowers

Alaskan Conversations

One of the favorite casual conversations I've overheard was a discussion of how frequently you need to bathe, how little water you can get by with using to bathe, and whether or not moist towelettes serve just as good a purpose as actual bathing. That was a “tent life” discussion. (As some people here move to tents to save money.)

Another conversation was the relative value of exotic meats like lynx, bear, squirrel and moose. They have a registry here for road kill. If a moose gets hit, drivers will call it in, and the person at the top of the list gets a call to come and get the meat. But you have to be able to butcher and remove it in a certain time frame.

Pictures: Wildflowers

The Savage River

I took the free bus us to Savage River and walked for 3 hours – 1 ½ hours further into the park, and then back to Savage River. It was a test to see how it felt. The scenery is pleasant but not spectaular in that part of the park. The best thing was to stop walking all of a sudden and just listen to the nothingness with only the occasional bird and the sound of the wind or a stream.

The Savage River has to be one of the greatest names – although it really is a not at all savage looking braided river. Braided rivers are common throughout the park and are like a bunch of streams running down from the mountains to meet and cross paths – pretty to look at.

There was a bathroom along the road, with a big 2x4 as a door lock, lots of metal bolts and a sign warning to shut the door behind you to keep wild animals out. While I’m sure the mean when you leave, I couldn’t help but imagining someone running in and cowering in the bathroom stall while a bear tries to storm the barricade.

Pictures: Savage River; Dozens of Hares; Bathroom

Gainful Employment

I started my job today. How weird it seems to now have a completely different life for a few months, new place, new home, new job, new people surrounding me.

Most of the visitors to the area are retired couples and such on Alaskan cruises. It is odd to go from LA, where you don’t see many older Americans (mostly older Russians, and there is a definite culture difference) to a place filled with older Americans, Australians and Brits. Can we only afford to travel in our old age – how depressing that there aren’t more young families. How heartening to see so many people who apparently are going the distance “to death do us part…” Maybe there is hope for finding someone to grow old with, although the people I see now met in a different era.

Pictures: Ptarmigan; bear proof garbage; sun

Epic Walks – The Plan

So yesterday while on the bus I learned that you can just get off and walk on the tundra anywhere along the Park Road. I will definitely try to do that if I can find a partner to go with me.

However, as a project I can do on my own, I have decided to walk the entire length of the Park Road – 90 miles – in a series of 5 epic walks. I think this will help me get to know the park in a way that will bond me to it. Also, I just want to see if I can do it.

The walks are roughly: 15, 14, 18, 19, and 24 miles
- Park entrance to Savage River - 15 miles
- Savage River to Teklanika River - 14 miles (29 miles into park)
- Teklanika River to Polychrome Overlook - 18 miles (47 Miles into the park)
- Polychrome Overlook to Eielson Center - 19 miles (66 Miles into the park)
- Eielson Center to Kantishna - 24 miles (90 miles into the park)

Obstacles:
* Bears – Let’s face it, the fact that I saw bears on the road first hand makes this scary. I did see them only on what would be sections 2, 3 and 4 of the walk. I also figure that not walking in Denali because you are afraid of bears is kind of like not walking in New York City because you are afraid of muggers. That said, you may be able to plead for mercy with a mugger, while your pleas would likely fall on deaf ears with a bear. Comforting is the fact that you are more likely to be struck by lightning that attacked by a bear – however I bet that statistic applies to everyone in the US and maybe not people walking in bear territory. I bought a bear bell and then someone told me that bears were likely to come see what it was. So the best defense is singing loudly so as to alert them to your presence.

* Lack of food and water – unlike a marathon, there will be no support team, I’ll have to carry everything I need with me which is heavy and annoying. Fortunately walking instead of running should cut back on water needs.

* Weather – the weather here changes throughout the day – sunny, rainy, and windy – hard to plan for especially over a number of hours.

* Bus schedules – I’ll have to make sure I complete the walks in times when I can get a bus back to the park entrance, and that may be hard to time further into the park.

* Pain – without being able to listen to music like I have for marathon running, I may find it
harder to ignore the shuffling sounds of my own feet or the pain in my feet, legs, and back (especially with having to carry water, etc.). Also, these walks are going to have to come close together in order to fit them in before really bad weather comes.

All that said, I’m game.

Pictures: Denali Park adn the Park Road

Kantishna - First Look at Denali Park

The bus to Kantishna leaves at 8:15am and takes 12 hours to travel as far as you can go into the park and then come back out. It stops for bathroom breaks at outposts along the road and at the Eielson Center (where you can view McKinley and go on nature walks). While there is water at Eielson, it isn’t guaranteed to be working, and it is the only place in the park where you can get water. So you have to pack all your food and drinks for the day with you. You are also supposed to eat on the bus as eating outside attracts animals and food rewards make animals bold and mean and eventually dead.

The buses are school buses, and you get friendly with your neighbors really quick. How it works is the bus drives the road and everyone looks out their windows. If anyone thinks they see an animal they yell “STOP!” and say what they think it is and where it is. If it is an animal, everyone pulls down their window, the bus driver stops in the best spot, and you must be completely silent (good luck with that). Then everyone pulls out cameras and binoculars and there is a lot of shuffling about and cramming yourself next to people on the side of the bus the animal is on, and whispers of “Where?” “I see it, I see it!” “I can’t get that picture…” and general stating of the obvious about the animals including color, numbers, ages, sex, and anything else that comes to mind when you see an animal in the wild. Eventually the bus driver turns on the engine and drives off, and the conversation really picks up with happy exclamations, and showing of pictures on view screens and telling of related stories of wildlife in Alaska.

Besides wild animals, the other thing everyone wants to see is Mt. McKinley, also called Denali which means “Great One” in the native Athabascan language (it’s the tallest mountain in North America). People in the area use both names to the confusion of many tourists – and really I think they favor Denali, which they should. But for clarities sake I’m going to refer to the mountain itself as McKinley. It is only visible 20% of the time, and many people who come to Denali never get to see it because even though it can be a clear day, the mountain literally makes its own weather, and its favorite weather is cloudy. The Eielson Center is the best viewing spot and has markings on the ground for various heights and then when you look up you can see an outline on the glass of where McKinley would be if you can see it.

So how did I do on the bus ride? Excellent!!!!!!!!! I did see McKinley, although from a distance – it came out while we were on our way home. I saw a ton of animals including bears and bear cubs right on the road. I saw moose bucks – which was a first as I hadn’t yet seen a moose with a rack and that does make them a lot more impressive. I saw Dall sheep, caribou, red foxes, hares, ground squirrels, ptarmigan, and various birds. While I got some great and some not so hot pictures, I tried to remember to put the camera down and just use the binoculars at times to really enjoy being able to observe the animals in their environment (I even had rented better binoculars from the WAC as a special treat).

I would rate the ride as a wonderful experience that is hard to describe. Truth be told, you can see these animals in zoos, but it is completely different spotting wild animals – even ones in the far off distance in terms of feeling generally lucky to just be alive in the world – in their world – for a day. Also the scenery along the whole ride is jaw droppingly beautiful, especially the section called Polychrome and its colored mountains. Most of the park is tundra and trees don’t grow there, which almost has the effect of a huge expanse of ground carpeted with green and bordered by various types of green or snow topped mountains as backdrops. And don’t even get me started on the clouds here – dramatic and changing, and the lighting designers for the park as they cover patches with shadow and highlight others with rays of sunlight.

My only regrets – I could probably have done with a little more packed food, and I want to see a wolf and a lynx before I leave Alaska.

The bus trip inspired some epic walks – more on that tomorrow…

Pictures: McKinley; Scenery; Animals